ADDEESS 



BY 



The Ebv. Professor T. G. BONNEY, Sc.D., LL.D., F.E.S., 



PRESIDENT. 



Thirty-one years have passed since the British Association met in 

 Sheffield, and the interval has been marked by exceptional progress. A 

 town has become a city, the head of its municipality a Lord Mayor; its 

 area has been enlarged by more than one-fifth ; its population has 

 increased from about 280,000 to 479,000. Communication has been 

 facilitated by the construction of nearly thirty-eight miles of electric 

 tramways for home service and of new railways, including alternative 

 routes to Manchester and London. The supplies of electricity, gas, 

 and water have more than kept pace with the wants of the city. The 

 first was just being attempted in 1879; the second has now twenty- 

 three times as many consumers as in those days ; the story ' of the 

 third has been told by one who knows it well, so that it is enough for me 

 to say your water-supply cannot be surpassed for quantity and quality 

 by any in the kingdom. Nor has Sheffield fallen behind other cities 

 in its public buildings. In 1897 your handsome Town Hall was opened 

 by the late Queen Victoria ; the new Post Office, appropriately built and 

 adorned with material from almost local sources, was inaugurated less 

 than two months ago. The Mappin Art Gallery commemorates the 

 munificence of those whose name it bears, and fosters that love of the 

 beautiful which Euskin sought to awaken by his liberal gifts. Last, 

 but not least, Sheffield has shown that it could not rest satisfied till its 

 citizens could ascend from their own doors to the highest rung of the 

 educational ladder. Firth College, named after its bountiful founder, 

 was born in the year of our last visit; in 1897 it received a charter as 

 the University College of Sheffield, and in the spring of 1905 was 

 created a University, shortly after which its fine new buildings were 



1 History and Description of Sheffield Water Works. W. Terrey, 1908. 



b2 



